“Pravda” Attack On Cultural Revolution

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31169, 20 September 1966, Page 21

“Pravda” Attack On Cultural Revolution

(X Z Presi As>n. —Copyright) | MOSCOW, Sept. 19. I The official Soviet I Communist Party | newpaper. “Pravda.” i has accused the Peking Government of I planning to export its ' cultural resolution beyond the confines of ' China, United Press ! International reported. | In the first editorial attack' by a Soviet newspaper on the teen-age Red Guard rampages tn China, “Pravda” said on Friday the current upheaval could damage and discredit communism. It linked the use of youths in the anti-Western movement to crush the “enemies” of Mao Tse-tung and wipe out all foreign influences in China with the tactics advocated by the discredited Leon Trotsky. The official Jugoslav agency Tanjug reported that Premier Chou En-lai told the Red Guards that Mao Tse-tung was their commander-in-chief while the Defence Minister, Lin Piao, was assistant com-mander-in-chief of both the Communist Party and the Chinese Government. It quoted placards carried by members of the Red Guards which contained excerpts of a speech made by Mr Chou on September 1, which it said has not yet been published in China. Tanjug said it offered more confirmation of reports that the five deputy chairmen under Mao had been removed and Lin stands alone in their place. An accompanying dispatch from the “Pravda” correspondent in Peking said the officially backed Red Guards did not have the support of the! Chinese people. It said they were carrying, out their crusade in violation 1 of China’s constitution “and; the elementary principles of' law.” Clashes Reported Soviet, Japanese and other correspondents in Peking

have reported numerous clashes between the Red Guards and farmers, workers and others.

The “Hong Kong Times” said the deposed Peking Mayor. Peng Chen, and the farmer Army chief of staff, Lo Jui-Ching, had committed suicide in prison. The report was based on information from a “Red Guard unit leader.” Other Hong Kong newspapers reported “bloody fighting” recently in Ansham, China’s most important steel centre, with more than 100 people killed or wounded. The reports said several hundred Red Guards battled with workers for more than four hours until Chinese Army troops intervened. “Spreading Storm” The “Pravda” editorial said the Peking Government had initiated the current internal upheaval as a first step in spreading a “revolutionary” storm over the world. It quoted a declaration of the Red Guards in Peking that said: “Tell all the world most seriously that we are not only starting a revolutionary storm in China, but shall spread it to all the world.” “Pravda" is unrestrained in its accounts of brutality and torture:

“The Red Guards beat up a worker because he happened to be in a room where they found a portrait of Mao TseTung with a crack in the frame.

“They beat people with sticks, rifle butts, chairs and electric wires. One man was tortured a whole night. When he lost consciousness they poured cold water over him and kept tourturing him until he died.” “Prava” asked the following questions: “Why are non-party youths and school children called upon to criticise Communists and to assess the work of party’ organs? “Why is this "proletarian’ movement proceeding without the participation of the Chinese working class? For what reason was it necessary to substitute the lawful organs of

the people’s power in China and to violate the constitution and elementary principles of law?” British Criticism On Saturday the Soviet press reported that four more Communist parties had condemned and disassociated themselves from the Chinese cultural revolution. Among them was the British Communist Party which issued a declaration published in “Pravda” defining the cultural revolution as “the deification of Mao Tse-Tung, the suppression of creative thought, and the effort to liquidate all opposition to the current dogmatic, fanatical anti-Soviet policy of the current leadership.” The British statement, was considered particularly significant because the British Communists have been dragging their feet in the SinoSoviet dispute. “Pravda” also published statements by the Czechoslovak, Bulgarian and Spanish Communist parties violently condemning the Chinese.